Tad,

Perhaps I am trying to draw a fine line! However, the Law requires it! I do not believe that God loves us the way lovers love each other. Erotic love occurs between human beings and not between God and humans. Eros is sanctioned by marriage wherein it is supposed to be contained. It is not supposed to spill out onto the streets. Unfortunately it does and it is cheapened by it. God asks us to love each other ultimately in a different way. At the end of the Gospel of John when Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves him, an interesting use of words occurs which is lost in the translation. Jesus uses the word agapas (Agape), whereas Peter responds, "Yes, I do love you," using the word philo, meaning "fondness" and "affection". The third time, Jesus relents and asks Peter, "Do you love (philo) me?" using Peter's more familiar term. In his book, The Four Loves, C. S. Lewis admits that he does not know much about Agape, or what he calls "charity", the last and most important of the loves according to him. What is this Agape, the love that Jesus calls us to have?

Nort